"Going Native" in New Mexico

On the popular Travel Channel show "No Reservations," Anthony Bourdain does some cultural snooping, talking with the natives, eating native dishes, participating in native religious practices and drinking lots of native hooch (whatever that culture's specialty). Similarly, I've tried "going native" for years now, eating at locally-owned cafes, bistros and sidewalk stands, finding friendly locals and asking questions as well as using my poor language skills to span the spoken divide.

In New Mexico, "going native" is a bit different though. The blending of cultures here is unique to any other American city I've visited. Mexican, Native American, Spanish and American cultures provide the backdrop for cowboys and skateboarders, mountain men and urbanites, priests and pagans and business men and beggars. The range in last names is proof enough: Spotted Eagle, Jimenez, Wilson. (According to the U.S. Census Bureau, New Mexico is home to the highest number of Hispanics in the U.S., and is second -- behind Alaska -- in number of Native Americans.)

The best way I've discovered to "go native" here is to sample the local cuisine, which is an authentic blend of Mexican, Native American and Tex-Mex with a celebrity ingredient, chile. People put chile on breakfast dishes, in soups, on burgers and on everything in between. Unlike in the South, where steakhouses rule the roost, here, New Mexican cuisine is king. Local restaurant chains, named Garcia's and Garduno's, compete in numbers against fast-food giants, serving enchiladas with spicy black beans, Spanish rice and red or green chile, along with dozens of other tasty combinations.

No hype is needed; the chile craze comes in with the harvest. The late summer crop of green chiles is now being harvested and sold everywhere. People are excited, and anticipation fills the air. I've overheard excited locals gab about roasting chiles, smelling the roasting chiles, hanging up their chile ristras, attending local chile festivals, spicing up their favorite recipes and of course, eating chiles. The energy is contagious, because chiles are delicious, addictive and decidedly "New Mexican."

As shallow as it sounds, the food helps bring people together here. Hispanics and Mexicans have asked if I like chile, and when I say "yes," an immediate friendship develops. I have yet to meet someone who doesn't love New Mexican chile, red, green or both. And, if talking about the weather is too bland or boring a subject, I just bring up the chile crop.

So, if you want to "go native" in New Mexico, feed your obsessions some chiles.